Brown Alumni Monthly, Vol. 50

To begin with, you had to use a few figures, but they were revealing ones. The size of the student body was dropping oft - that was obvious: In September, 1948, there had been 3200 undergraduates in the College. In September, 1949, there were 2985. In February, 1949, there had been 2916; now there were 2740. Some who left had graduated, and 71 of the 164 who completed requirements for their degree elected to take their diploma in February at a simple ceremony in Faunce House Theatre. Their space in June, frankly, would be welcome, for 712 more would be ready for degrees then - 876 for the year. All American colleges, it seemed, were gradu ating their largest classes in history.

Next fall, with 650 Freshmen admitted, we could look to a College of 2570, which would be 2300 in February. We were getting there, and at the eventual 2200 we would have again a College of manageable size. That, the Dean assured us, was on a more personal basis, when a name could be something more than a name on an ibm card with the human warmth that meant.

Another good thing the Dean noted was the improve ment in scholarship. The all-college average of a year ago had risen from to and not because the Faculty had gone soft, either - you could credit a good Senior Class with that performance. It was interesting, moreover, to watch the scholarship of the fraternities. A year ago seven fraternities had exceeded the all-college average; this year seven fraternities did the same - and not the same seven, either. Some, which had been regarded as the foundation of the University, had moved out of the subcellar into the basement. This year 11 fraternities out of 17 were above the level of a year ago which was the all-college average. That was something.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.